On August 19, 2026, Treasury data reported by various outlets showed that the US national debt officially surpassed $40 trillion for the first time. The total is now roughly $117,000 per person and about $297,000 per household. This amount has doubled since January 2017, when it was $19.95 trillion at the start of Trump’s first term. It has grown by $3.8 trillion since his second term began in January 2025, by $11.6 trillion across his two terms combined, and by $8.4 trillion during Biden’s term. Approximately a third of the increase occurred in the two years following the March 2020 COVID-19 pandemic declaration.
Alongside pandemic-era spending, the growth has been driven by infrastructure investment, clean energy subsidies, and expanding Social Security and Medicare costs due to an aging population. Consequently, interest payments are now the federal budget’s second-largest item after Social Security. Margaret Spellings of the Bipartisan Policy Center stated that federal debt “is already raising the cost of living and choking out other spending and investment.” Additionally, financial commentary account The Kobeissi Letter, which initially flagged the milestone on X, described the trajectory as “an unsustainable fiscal path.”
This milestone coincides with long-term borrowing costs reaching levels last seen in 2008. In response, the US Treasury doubled its bond buybacks to $4 billion per operation to provide what it termed “liquidity support.”